Of Makeup and Mythology
by SpontaneousCreativity
Summary: "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Euphemia Trinket." Hayffie/PJO. AU.
1. Another One Turns Into Dust

Look, I didn't want to be a demigod.

If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.

If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.

But if you recognize yourself in these pages -if you feel something stirring inside- stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

* * *

My name is Effie Trinket. I'm 14 years old. I'm a student at Dalton Valley Junior High, a school for the gifted.

The thing is, I'm not gifted. I am pretty, though. This doesn't seem like that much of a problem to anybody, but it is. Just hear me out. When you are pretty (and blonde I might add), people think that you aren't very smart. They explain things to you like they would to a little kid. I admit I'm not the most gifted person in the world- my dyslexia and ADHD hold me back. I do well in my classes, especially Social Studies and English, and I am one of the best players on my school's softball team.

But, everyone else seems to look past that, and all they see is another pretty, dumb face. They don't think that I am able to do things myself. It seems like people don't understand that, especially my father. Since my mother left, he's been over-protective of me, as if I'm some kind of diamond in a jewelry store, and thieves could bust in and steal me at any moment.

Anyways, since people believe I can't do anything for myself, they let me get away with things. You see, most of my teachers 'just can't say no to that pretty face'. Trust me, it's more of a problem than you think. Instead of facing the consequences like a normal kid, they let me get away with whatever trouble I've gotten myself into. They just send me off with a warning and carry on with their day, no matter what went wrong. I swear I've got a conscience as guilty as a criminal's.

My father does try to get me out of trouble as best as he can, but the only way he thinks he is able to get me out of trouble is to bribe other people – which ultimately blows up in his face, leaving me embarrassed in front of the office staff.

On one very significant day though, I did something I doubted I could get away with.

But, somehow, I managed to.

* * *

After gym class, while we were changing into our regular school uniforms, fixing our hair and gathering our books, I was approached by Agnes Krol- and, trust me, she is about as pretty as her name. She is the complete opposite of me. I'm about average height, while she's shorter than most of the girls in school; her poufy brown hair that she hides inside one of the largest beanies I've ever seen is no match for my wavy blonde hair; her green-yellow eyes contrast against my blue ones; her sense of style is way different than mine- hers seems to be hand-me-down and thrift shop chic, while mine is mall-or-bust couture. So, this girl didn't really intimidate me.

"Give it back," She muttered.

I glance over to my best friend, Portia, whose gym locker was right next to mine.

"Give what back?"

"My lip-gloss. I know you have it."

This was a shock to me. I never would have thought this girl had ever owned a beauty product, not even a chap stick.

"I don't have it, Agnes. And even if I did have it and gave it back to you, I'm sorry to say this, but having that lip-gloss wouldn't make you any prettier than not having it." Okay, okay, that was pretty harsh. But, it's not like that lip-gloss was magically going to make her beautiful.

"I am pretty." Agnes said through her gritted teeth.

I raised my eyebrows at her. Most people in the school thought she wasn't the prettiest girl in school, and it came to Agnes' attention that they knew that, and she started to realize it, too. She seemed to accept that fact. She was a modest girl, also, so saying something like that was unlike her.

"Well, I used to be pretty. I was beautiful…" She said, almost in a happy tone, almost wistful.

"Until she ruined me. Ruined! I was pretty. I was pretty…just…like…_you_."

At this, the strangest thing happened. Agnes looked directly at me, grabbed her oversized beanie and whipped it off. In place of her hair was hundreds of green and brown snakes. Portia and I turned around, not wanting to face the horrible sight in front of us.

I remember this from when we studied mythology in Social Studies. A pretty girl turned ugly, when she was caught with Poseidon in Athena's temple. Her hair was turned to snakes, and her face turned so horrible that looking in her eyes would turn people to stone. Everything in my head was all jumbled up from fear, I could barely remember her name. It took me a minute until I remembered.

_Medusa,_ I thought. _That's who it is._

"I was the most beautiful girl. Until she changed my hair into snakes. Now I'm hideous!" She cried.

I clumsily grabbed my compact mirror out of my locker. I tried to look at her without looking into her eyes. Agnes- or Medusa, really- walked up to Portia and I and started speaking very close to us. When she leaned in, I could feel the snakes' tongues on my face as they hissed. It scared me so much that I dropped my mirror. _Crap._

"You girls have it easy. The pretty ones. You get what you want, and you can get out of everything. Why can't I get what I want? Why is it so unfair?" Medusa cried.

Portia and I were both still cowering in fear. Portia moved a little bit, and reached inside her locker. She grabbed what she was looking for and nudged my arm.

"Effie. Take this and open it." She pressed something into my hand. I opened my eyes enough to see it. _A tube of mascara. _Portia glanced over at me and saw the look of confusion on my face. "Just open it." She whispered.

I turned into the corners of the lockers and ducked my head down, so I couldn't see Agnes no matter which way I looked. I fumbled with the mascara, trying to get it open with my trembling hands. I twisted off the lid, and the wand was gone.

In it's place was a dagger blade.

My thoughts raced through my head.

_A blade? Portia wants me to kill somebody? How are you supposed to kill somebody you can't look at?_

Shielding my eyes, I walked over to retrieve the mirror I had dropped earlier. I moved it so I could see Medusa behind me. I slowly stood up, and looked at Portia. She looked back at me "It's okay. I got this." I mouthed. She smiled and nodded.

I backed up a little bit, getting within arm's reach from the monster. She seemed distracted, running her hands through her hair, calming the snakes slithering around her head. I took a few deep breaths. _You can do this, I_ thought, _all you have to do is get her attention, and swing back the dagger and- _

I didn't want to think about what would happen next.

"Medusa!" I called.

I pulled up my mirror, watching her pull her hands from her hair, the snakes quickly rising back up, hissing and slithering like they were before.

She walked closer.

Taking one more deep breath, I pulled my arm my arm back, gripped the dagger even tighter- if that was even possible; my knuckles were like small, white marbles- and swung. I could feel the dagger pass through her skin- almost like water. She shrieked, and fell on her knees, clutching the dagger embedded in her stomach. I turned around, and saw her face turned towards the ground, the slithering snakes were limp on her head.

Then, the second strangest thing happened. I watched as she turned from a scary, terrifying, but dying monster into a pile of _gold dust_. All that was left was the dust and the dagger, which had taken the form of the mascara wand.

Portia timidly walked up next to me and wrapped her arm around me. I started crying. My brain almost shut off. I still didn't know what was going on. I killed someone -or something- for crying out loud!

I composed myself quickly, wiping the tears on the back of my hand. I grabbed the mascara wand, put it back in the tube, and handed it to Portia.

"Here," I said sniffling a little.

"No, you keep it. You're going to need it."

I checked my eyes to see if she meant that my makeup was running, but it was still fine, although my face was bright red from crying and wiping at my eyes. I shrugged it off and stuck the mascara in my pocket.

I turned around and faced the other girls in the locker room. They all had horrified looks on their faces, and I could hear them whispering.

"-And she just came up to her-"

"Agnes was nice to her but she just-"

"-she just got so upset and angry-"

"-pushed down her books-."

"-and she just left, crying."

I looked at Portia, who was standing back at her locker, casually brushing and putting her dark brown hair into a braid. "Portia..." I started to say, my voice trembling a little bit. "What happened to Agnes?"

"She ran out of the room, crying. What you did to her was really mean, Effs. I've never seen you act so harshly to anybody like that." Portia replied, calmly, but with a touch of anger in her voice. "What's gotten into you?"

* * *

**_A.N - _****Just so you know, the beginning of the chapter (The portion before the first line break) is from the Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief book, by Rick Riordan. So, credit to Rick Riordan, not me. Just wanted to clear that up. Anyways, thank you for reading! This is my first fic, so please review and tell me what you think. I had a lot of fun writing this, and I'm really excited to write more. Hayffie will come in the next few chapters.**


	2. The Keres Enjoy The Park

My life is weird. Don't get me wrong, I was used to an occasional strange experience. For example, some really tall kid asked me out in school a few months ago. I told my dad, but he didn't believe the part about the kid having one big eye in the middle of his forehead.

Still, nothing was like _this._

I kept asking people what had happened to Agnes, even though it was almost more than a week since it had happened. I still got the same response- "After you screamed in her face and pushed down her books, she ran out of the room crying. Don't you remember?"

I almost believed it. That I really just bullied Agnes until she ran out of the locker room.

But whenever I brought it up around Portia, I asked her what she thought had happened… and she hesitated before saying the same things everybody else had told be. I knew she was lying. I could tell that something was up.

I would try to get it off my mind, but it seemed as if Medusa's face was branded into the back of my brain. It made it harder to concentrate in school, and to do homework. At night, during whatever dream I'm having, the snakes crawl up from the floor, covering me in them, waking me up. This affected my grades, too. My B's and C's turned to D's. It also messed with my mood. Being tired made me get angry much more easily, so I would snap at people quickly and I even got into a few fights. I stopped doing homework altogether, since I wasn't able to concentrate on anything. Trying to study was a bust- if my dyslexia and ADHD made it hard to read out of my textbooks before, imagine what it was like when you have the memory of killing somebody stuck in your head. If you guessed impossible, you are correct.

I spoke to the principal at my school. Because of my failing grades and multiple rule infractions, I would not be coming back to Dalton Valley Junior High next year. It didn't bother me. Maybe since I had been moving around schools a lot, the next one I went to would be the one I stayed at for good.

Since I was leaving school, I stopped caring about my grades. They could have only gotten so much worse since I had stopped doing my homework and studying. It didn't matter to me that we had exams coming up.

The only thing I didn't stop doing was finding out what really happened the day I saw Medusa.

Luckily, I know one more person who might have seen Medusa, too- our gym teacher Miss Rosi. Being on the softball team at school helped me get closer to her, and she is the only teacher I can really talk to about things- like how it bothered me that my dad would try to bribe people to get me out of trouble (only to have it ultimately fail and embarrass me to no end), and how Agnes would always act like a creep around me, but she was friendly to everyone else. Miss Rosi also gives really good advice, and not just for softball, but for family or friend problems, too. It's also almost impossible to fail gym class, so at least I'm on her good side. I knew I could count on her to help me out.

After gym class- the last period of the day, I grabbed my books, clumsily shoved them in my backpack, waited until everyone cleared out, and I went up to Miss Rosi's office. The door was slightly ajar, and light shone through. I was just about to go in when I heard a voice. _Portia? _

"… Scared for Effie." I froze. _Why would Portia be scared for me?_

I leaned closer to the door.

"…at home this summer. I mean, a Kindly One posing as one of our students! Now that we know, they might be aware too…."

"We shouldn't rush her into things, Portia. We need to wait until she is stronger."

"But, the deadline-"

"Can – and will – be resolved without Effie."

"She did see her, Ma'am. Effie saw Medusa that day."

"It was her imagination. The Mist over the students should be enough to be able to convince her." Miss Rosi insisted.

There was a slight pause before Portia spoke again.

"Ma'am… I cannot fail in my duties again." Portia sniffled. Her voice caught, as if she was on the brink of tears. "You know what it would mean."

"And you won't fail, Portia. I should have seen Agnes for who she really was. Now, we must focus on keeping Effie alive."

I dropped my backpack, resulting in a large _crash_.

I saw a large shadow, much too large to be Miss Rosi's. The wheelchair-bound gym teacher - if you think she can't be a gym teacher because she's in a wheelchair, just wait until you see her be our class' handball team captain and we beat your team by three times your score – casts a way smaller shadow than the one I just saw.

Grabbing my backpack, I ran behind one of the sets of lockers and waited. A few seconds later, a sound, much like the sound of, echoed through the locker room.

I sucked in a deep breath and waited.

"There's nothing out there, Portia."

"Oh. I could have sworn…"

"Why don't you go call your parents and go home, Portia.

I heard footsteps and a door closing. Miss Rosi's door closed, and I heard it lock. I creeped out of the locker room, careful not to make any sound. I ran straight home.

* * *

Once I got home, I slumped down on my bed. My dad walked by my room and quietly muttered "Hello," and "how are you?"

"Tired. How are you?" I replied. But by the time I finished speaking, he was long gone.

I shrugged it off, and pulled my backpack off the floor. I grabbed my homework, although I never bothered to do it. My brain was cluttered with everything that had happened.

One thing was clear. Portia and Miss Rosi thought I was in some kind of danger.

* * *

On my last day, as I walked out of softball practice, Miss Rosi said I should stay a little longer after practice. I obliged, since she was the only teacher that still had an ounce of respect for me. Everybody cleared out, and she turned to face me.

"Effie, I heard about your leaving Dalton Valley."

I blushed and looked down at the floor.

"It's not something that should discourage you. It's…. for the best." She spoke kindly, although her words were still slightly embarrassing.

"Alright." I muttered.

"This… this just isn't the right school for you. It was only a matter of time."

Great. My favorite teacher, the one I trusted, the one who still respected me and believed in me, was telling me that I couldn't handle all of this. That I was destined to be kicked out.

"Okay." Tears threated to spill over.

"I'm sorry Effie. It's just… what I meant to say was that you- you aren't normal, Effie. There isn't anyth-"

"Thank you. Thank you Miss Rosi, for reminding me." I blurted out.

She tried to speak, but I had already left the locker room.

* * *

On the last day of the semester, I had told my friends I was moving and I said goodbye to all of them.

I didn't say goodbye to Portia- not yet, anyways, Portia and I rode the same bus. We sat next to each other the whole ride home, although we didn't talk much. We didn't really have anything to say to each other, and a plain 'goodbye' was not enough.

During the better part of the ride, in between awkward silences and unfinished sentences, Portia's eyes were sweeping the aisle and watching all of the other students.

She was acting strange, and she was really tense. It was sort of creeping me out, so I broke the ice.

"Are you looking for Kindly Ones?"

She turned around in her seat, eyes wide open and her jaw slightly dropped.

"Um… I was… just… uhh, what do you mean?" she stuttered.

I confessed to Portia about eavesdropping on her and Miss Rosi.

"How much of that conversation did you hear, Effie?"

"Not much of it. What was that deadline you were talking about?"

"It's …. Nothing. Look Effie, I'm just worried for you is all. I mean, you been hallucinating about girl with snake hair and…" Portia rambled on.

I glared at her, and she nodded a bit and started to wrap things up.

"I was just talking to Miss Rosi that I was nervous because you wouldn't accept the fact that you were rude to Agnes…"

"Portia, you are a terrible liar."

She blushed. Portia reached down to her jeans pocket and pulled out an old, dirty business card. "Here," she said, handing the card to me. "Take this, in case you ever need me."

The small, cursive print on the card was killing my eyes. The letters kept shuffling around in my head, until I could finally make sense of what the card said:

_Portia Kazan_

_Keeper_

_Half-Blood Hill_

_Long island, New York_

_(800) 009-0009_

"Portia, what's Half-Bl-"

"Don't say it, Effie." She warned. "It's my… summer home."

"Alright... so this way, I can come visit your mansion or whatever."

"Or… or if you need me over the summer."

"Why would I need you, Portia?"

Alright, that came out ruder than I wanted it to sound.

Portia blushed. "Effie, you see, I kind of have to… protect you."

In all of the fights I have been in with Portia (there were a lot more than you think), I have protected her. I've saved her butt in gym class, and have stood up for her when she was picked on. How was I supposed to believe that _she_ was supposed to protect _me_?

I stared at her for a while. "If you're supposed to protect me, what exactly are you supposed to protect me from? I'm not in danger or anything, am I?"

Just then, one of the bus wheels started creating sparks on the road, and the bus driver pulled us over. He hopped out the door and went to investigate the situation.

"Flat tire!" He called from outside the bus doors. "Everyone out."

Students groaned as they all filed out of the bus, backpacks in tow. Portia and I went out last.

The bus stopped near a park, with lots of trees, flowers and grass. It seemed boring at first, but something (or should I say some _people_) caught my eye.

There were 3 young ladies sitting under a tree. They all had short, black hair and charcoal-colored dresses. The dresses weren't just gray though. They were splattered with blood. The ladies nails were long and sharp like talons. I leaned forward a little bit to get a better look at them. I guess they all saw me staring at them, because they turned their heads toward me and smiled, baring their teeth- but not just any teeth. These ladies had _fangs_.

I found Portia and told her about the women under the tree.

"Effie, we need to get on the bus, now!" She grabbed my wrist and tried to drag me over to the bus, but I wasn't going anywhere. That bus has got to be a million degrees. Portia saw the look on my face that said _I'm not moving! _So she sighed, and stayed behind with me.

After a while, the bus driver had managed to fix the tire, and we all got back on board. I was feeling pretty bad, but Portia looked as if she might pass out. She kept looking down the aisle,

"Portia," I asked "What are you not telling me? What wrong with what I saw?"

She started to calm down a bit. Portia took a deep breath and looked down at her hands.

"Effie, can you please tell me what you saw again?"

"Three young ladies, with blood-stained gowns, short black hair, and nails that looked like they hadn't trimmed them in centuries stared at me and smiled. I'm pretty sure they had fangs, too."

Portia nodded, and started making strange signs with her hands. It seemed like she was crossing herself, but the signs looked almost ancient.

"Hey, Portia, who were those ladies, anyway?"

She ignored me.

"Portia, those ladies, when you see them… does that mean someone is going to die?"

Portia looked over and stared mournfully… as if she were looking at my grave.

* * *

_**A.N- **_**This story will be sort of following the Percy Jackson books, but it will start to differ from the books soon.**

**Thank you so much for reading and giving me feedback on my first chapter! It really means a lot! Please keep reading, reviewing, alerting, and favorite-ing! **


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